A/HRC/39/CRP.2 religion, cultural identities and national interest”, Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing stated that “all must strive for the positive progress for the flourishing of good characteristics and deeds and preserve the excellent characteristics of the country. All the people living in the country must strive for the good of the country with patriotism. Additionally, the national defence duty falls on every citizen.” On 21 May 2018, Min Aung Hlaing reiterated this point, stating that “nationalistic spirit is the safeguarding of the own country and citizens forever... Only when youths with a wider knowledge prevent all the acts which undermine the patriotic spirit and nationalistic spirit, will the nationalistic defence capability of the nation rise and will Myanmar be existence as long as the world [exists]”. 2972 (d) The role of Facebook and other social media platforms 1342. As elsewhere in the world, the Internet and social media platforms have enabled the spread of this kind of hateful and divisive rhetoric. The Myanmar context is distinctive, however, because of the relatively new exposure of the Myanmar population to the Internet and social media. Messages portraying Rohingya as violent, dishonest, anti-Bamar, antiBuddhist, illegal immigrants and/or terrorists of the kind set out above are particularly widespread on social media. Death threats, incitement to violence and discrimination, and online harassment are common features as well, not only against the Rohingya themselves but also against moderate commentators, human rights defenders and ordinary people who have views that differ from the official line. 1343. Prior to 2011, the military regime heavily censored the media and the Internet was only available to a select few, as it was prohibitively expensive. This changed with the democratic reform process and the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry, which led to a rapid increase in the Myanmar population’s access to mobile telephony and the Internet.2973 While mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants stood at 1.18 in 2010, it had reached 55.91 by 2014 and 95.65 by 2016. Similarly, mobile broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants rose from 0.02 in 2011 to 56.30 in 2016. 2974 Such increased access to information and means of communication is one of the most tangible benefits of the democratisation process. It has undoubtedly contributed to greater enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, while also enabling far wider and faster dissemination of hate speech. 1344. With access to the Internet came access to social media platforms. While statistics on social media use in Myanmar are not readily available, Facebook is clearly by far the most common social media platform in use in Myanmar. 2975 Although Facebook was available and used before, a specific Myanmar version was launched in 2015.2976 Experts have estimated the number of active Facebook users in Myanmar at approximately 20 million. 2977 Mobile 2972 2973 2974 2975 2976 2977 Post on file with the Mission. In 2014, Telenor Myanmar Limited (TML) from Norway and Ooredoo Myanmar Limited (OML) from Qatar received licenses to compete with the government-owned Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT), which had been the sole operator. In 2017, a fourth license was issued to Telecom International Myanmar Company Limited (MyTel), a consortium of Myanmar companies and Viettel from Vietnam. It has been reported that Vietnam’s Viettel – wholly owned by the country’s Ministry of Defence – owns 49 per cent of MNTC, and that Star High Public Company, which has another 28 per cent, is owned by the Myanmar army through a holding company, Myanmar Economic Corporation. This makes MyTel essentially a joint venture between the militaries of Myanmar and Vietnam. See e.g. A. Burkitt-Gray, “Military dominates Myanmar’s fourth telecom licence” (Capacity Media, 13 January 2017). MyTel phone numbers start with 0-969. K-074. It is suggested that Facebook enjoys a more than 90 per cent share among social media platforms in Myanmar, and that this has been so since 2012. E.g. http://gs.statcounter.com/social-mediastats/all/myanmar. Submission from Facebook. Another popular platform for social messaging in Myanmar is Viber, with an estimated 18 million users in 2017. See Digital in Asia, “Myanmar 33 million mobile users, smartphone usage 80%” (9 January 2017). B-005; see also J. Russell, “Myanmar group blasts Zuckerberg’s claim on Facebook hate speech prevention” (Tech Crunch, 6 April 2018). In June 2016, the number of users was believed to have 339